August 5, 201312 yr comment_164830 Stealth's open Alton Towers ...... Slammer's open though right? P.S. Not that I really care (cos it's RUBBISH), but Rita is now back open... Think might start a betting thing for which Towers coaster will break down next...
August 5, 201312 yr comment_164832 Rita does seem to be up and down alot more this year! (An awful lot) Saying that I think Nemesis and Air are the only ones not to be down alot this year.
August 5, 201312 yr comment_164845 Air has had it's fair share of downtime. Just not days worth. Nemesis is being reliable as ever. Best it's had is 20mins downtime this year (excluding powercut and weather)
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164874 Nemesis is being reliable as ever. Best it's had is 20mins downtime this year (excluding powercut and weather) What do you expect from a B&M coaster?
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164892 What do you expect from a B&M coaster? Well you could say that CoasterDude, but Air has had a fair amount of downtime as has Oblivion
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164900 Why are we playing the "X ride has been broken down for longer times than Y ride?" Rides BREAK DOWN... Sometimes minor stuff, or sometimes for weeks/months at a time... If we're going to compare, at least we haven't seen things like X(2) or Deja Vu esque levels of closure on a regular basis... Factor of life that machines break, it doesn't need to become a contest as to who has the least breakdowns in a year... (This being said, it can still be put on records that it's pretty factual that Intamin's are rather unreliable in many cases)
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164901 Well, Benin, It's been a trait for coasters fans for YEARS to compare park's reliability, to which nobody particularly cared. For instance, when Thorpe had diabolical reliability everyone jumped on the bandwagon, suddenly Alton have terrible reliability and people (you) are defending it with your life. Isn't it humorous your complaining about people comparing parks/rides, and yet yourself, in your post, compared rides in another park(s) to other parks by pointing out their reliability is worse than that of Alton's/other parks.
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164907 Air has had a fair amount of downtime as has Oblivion Heres an interesting question...HOW is Nemesis running so smoothly after 20 years of operation?
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164908 Heres an interesting question...HOW is Nemesis running so smoothly after 20 years of operation? It's a B&M and they (well most of them) age brilliantly, some actually improve with age.
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164909 Hint, I used those two rides as real examples of ride unreliability, I don't think Smiler or Rita or Oblivion or Slammer or Stealth are going to exactly make their respective manufacturers go completely bust as a result of extended downtime... Using X and Deja Vu as examples puts into perspective some of the pettyness really, I do implore you to look into their respective histories as they are both interesting rides to investigate... Until Towers have a situation where they have 3 rides open and nothing else then what else can we say? Thorpe had poor reliability for years, whilst this is one season for Towers... Jumping on the bandwagon after one delayed ride (which was clearly rushed and an overall poor job in construction, so fingers to be pointed at the construction company moreso) and the other rides that have had some downtime (so far, the only other coaster that has been down for several days is Oblivion with a blown out motor, Runaway and Thirteen were pretty slick fixings whilst Rita is a typical Accelerator and dying every two seconds)... Am I defending Towers with my life? Clearly I must be as I'm the only one saying anything positive and nothing negative about the park in the entire world and I never say anything positive about other parks in the country... When Towers end up having a daily crisis of rides dying left, right and centre like Thorpe used to, then we can grab the torches and pitchforks... The bandwagon for Thorpe's awful reliability is pretty clear that is was down to constant visits of half the park being down with on chance no coasters actually open and exceptionally poor shows from the whole place, yet in recent times, this has improved immensely, with minimal issues throughout... Perhaps then we will see the same of Towers... But since they actually had to delay the Thirteen closure for spewing oil everywhere due to RMT's motor dying, surely that's something to be thoughtful of? They could've had two coasters down and said "tough, both need work" but they didn't and kept one open... I think the Smiler construction debacle has really set the tone for Towers this year, where lots of people are just constantly attacking and pointing to that factor as a result for... something? I'm not quite sure really, but we can hope that the park will learn from that mistake like Thorpe eventually did with theirs (I.e. their realisation that the thrill market is not financially viable and changing tact)... Just atm it all seems pretty much a whole chance for slanging matches based upon fanboyism... Whilst Towers has a lot more to do, there is still stuff to be positive about for it, what with the great boost of entertainments throughout the park and that Smiler is a really great ride when it's open and has really captured the GP... Let's just hope they can fix up for the rest of the season and push away the silly management who think that cutting Scarefest hours because of 'unhappy staff' and crap staff who sell Fastrack in queues to fulfil whatever high quota they have...
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164918 Ok, so I've been out the country a long time, and haven't had much chance to catch up on news, but heard something happened to the Smiler whilst away. Is it now open? Guaranteed that it shuts when I go up on the 2nd & 3rd of Sept!
August 7, 201312 yr comment_164953 http://www.parkworld-online.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/2503/The_story_of_The_Smiler.html Great interview here with Ben Dowson (creative lead of Resort Theme Parks for Merlin Entertainments) about The Smiler.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165239 Finally got my first ride on The Smiler yesterday, its a great ride, not as good as Nemesis, but the best thing Towers have built in a long time.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165243 Woop! Glad that you finally got to ride The Smiler - and I agree with you about it being a great ride but not as good as Nemesis (did Smiler twice and Nemmy just the once). Oddly though I prefer Saw to Nemesis Inferno (going off topic there a bit).
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165245 Managed to go on The Smiler for the first time yesterday. Its a mamoth of a ride and I commend Alton for getting it, but you can already feel the roughness of it, in the cobra roll and the heart line turns (I think thats what their called), other than that though its a brilliant ride. Also it did break down yesterday, with one of the cars on the vertical lift hill near he top, after the queues had shut, ive got some videos I'm gonna merge together so you can see what happened.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165252 I haven't had the chance to go yet, but I probably will go in few years. It looks much better than Saw: The Ride
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165259 Its a mamoth of a ride and I commend Alton for getting it, but you can already feel the roughness of it The roughness seems to be very much train dependant, I managed to get on the same train for both my rides yesterday (Train 3, Row 2) the outer seats were a little rattly, but nothing too serious. The inside seats were remarkably smooth. It was a pleasant surprise after hearing so many bad things about roughness.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165261 The roughness seems to be very much train dependant, I managed to get on the same train for both my rides yesterday (Train 3, Row 2) the outer seats were a little rattly, but nothing too serious. The inside seats were remarkably smooth. It was a pleasant surprise after hearing so many bad things about roughness. As with most Gerstlaurers it seems.
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165305 New series of games on the Smiler mini-site (I forgot that even existed) to piss about on... If you get 100% you can enter a draw to win 1 Smiler Fastrack, woooooo! 50 a week for a few weeks it seems... http://www.altontowers.com/advocatetest/
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165306 New series of games on the Smiler mini-site (I forgot that even existed) to piss about on... If you get 100% you can enter a draw to win 1 Smiler Fastrack, woooooo! 50 a week for a few weeks it seems... http://www.altontowers.com/advocatetest/ How do you get 100%. I've completed the game several times and the highest I have got is 70%??
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165307 How do you get 100%. I've completed the game several times and the highest I have got is 70%?? By being a boss (like me, I managed to get 100%, the final game has a distinct nack to it)...
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165308 By being a boss (like me, I managed to get 100%, the final game has a distinct nack to it)... Please help
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165309 Bear in mind you can click the spinning circle of the 3, with that, you can set up the inner most circles correctly whilst the 3rd spins before clicking it madly until you win Whether or not that gives you 100% will no doubt be based on the other games... Least it's not easy to win...
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165310 Bear in mind you can click the spinning circle of the 3, with that, you can set up the inner most circles correctly whilst the 3rd spins before clicking it madly until you win Whether or not that gives you 100% will no doubt be based on the other games... Least it's not easy to win...Thanks
August 14, 201312 yr comment_165334 Nice little game, and a great idea from the park! Shame the prizes are individual Fastrack, would've preferred to see something else, but ah well..
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